Native Bees

High clouds and low clouds from the back yard.

I thought the clouds were really beautiful today and wanted to get a photo of the sky without any trees, powerlines or roofs in the way, so I took a quick walk to the nearby playing fields.  On my way I noticed the sound of many bees buzzing about; at first I thought there must be a really popular spring flowering tree or shrub in the vicinity, but upon closer inspection I saw it was actually a hive swarm of Australian bees!  I was very excited since I have never seen anything like this before.

It was quite the sight!  I took a short twenty-second video which I will plan on posting tomorrow.

On my way down to the playing field, after I'd had enough of bees buzzing around my head, I noticed the eucalyptus trees were still flowering.  There are at least two types of eucalyptus trees in this stand of trees, with the low-hanging branches I could see both white and pink flowers.  Other than that, however, I don't know what kind of gum trees they are.

Flowers and gum nuts

The uninterrupted clouds, viewed from the open playing fields.

Roos and Whales at Woolgoolga Headland

A really beautiful view looking down the coast from the Woolgoolga Headland.

Solitary Islands Lighthouse

A mob of kangaroos was grazing on the headland when we arrived

A large buck resting in the shade of the banksia.

A kangaroo with her joey, mostly hidden in the pouch.

Woolgoolga was only the beginning of our good fortune of seeing whales!

Breathing Rock [video]

I have been going through our videos from the past year and a half and will try to post a couple of the older ones.  We encountered this breathing rock in New England National Park last year October.  I would have taken a longer video but the camera battery died!

Coffs Botanic Gardens

It's always just so stunning to see huge Poinsettia!
This plant was just as tall as me.

We never pass up an opportunity to go to the North Coast Regional Botanic Gardens in Coffs Harbour.  We were hoping we'd spot a koala while we were there but no such luck.  No one had seen any that day when we arrived and our necks soon became pretty sore looking up for the bums in the gums.  But we were told to keep an eye out for a Powerful Owl and owlet in a tree: and seeing that definitely made up for the lack of koalas!

Calodendrum capense: Cape Chestnut from the Cape of Good Hope.

A species of Grevillea, native Australian plant

Elephant Apples

Powerful Owl chick

Both owls had their eyes on us!

The beautiful blooms of a trumpet tree

Noisy miner

As we were leaving I spotted this bird from the parking lot: a Spangled Drongo?

Coffs Activities

Dunes at the beach south of the jetty

Our stay in Coffs Harbour was quite leisurely and we enjoyed the Sunday jetty markets, walked out along the jetty toward Muttonbird Island, went to the Big Banana, walked along the beach and drove up to the Sealy Lookout that overlooks the city.  The best part about driving up to the lookout is the honesty boxes along the road: we passed avocados and brought home bananas, both fresh and frozen, covered in chocolate!

You can take a camel ride along the beach.  This might be fun someday.

The beach south of Coffs Harbour has vehicle access and is dog-friendly.

Now that I know what they are, I realize that we see a lot of Brahminy Kites

The view from Sealy Lookout, looking south.  Looks like rain!

From the lookout, looking over Coffs Harbour

Looking down over the tops of the trees.

Rain from earlier in the afternoon.  We were lucky to never get rained on,
but we had some close calls.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos

We were lucky to stay in a really neat location when we were in Coffs Harbour in the beginning of September.  Our holiday accommodation had a balcony looking out over the north part of the central city, including the line of banksia trees that separate the city from the beach.

Sunday afternoon, after we returned from our morning excursions, we could hear the loud cries of a flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos as they swept over the city.  There were two small flocks and a few of one stopped to perch in the banksia.  From our balcony we had an excellent view of the cockatoos as they swooped and called and settled in the banksia (not to mention the rainbow lorikeets in a nearby flowering tree.) 

Black cockatoos are really neat to see, party because they are so big.  They fly almost lazily with a slow beat of their wings and cry loudly.  We don't see them in Armidale very often, and this was the first time we'd seen such a large flock: 'large' being about fifteen or twenty birds.  Before, we've only ever seen them in pairs or groups of three.